Winning While Losing

August 06, 1989

There was both good and bad news in the government's latest in-depth look at American drug use: Overall use has dropped sharply, but offsetting that gain was the finding that cocaine use has risen just as dramatically.

The report was based on a federally funded household survey of about 9,000 respondents who supplied their answers in confidence. While there may be underreporting of drug use, the survey is believed to be an accurate reflection of national trends in the use of illegal drugs.

The study revealed that in the past four years, the number of people who are casual users of drugs dropped 37 percent. Whereas in 1985 there were some 23 million casual users of marijuana, cocaine and other drugs, the number in the latest study is said to have plummeted to 14.5 million.

Officials said the drop reflects a growing intolerance in the country of all drug use, including alcohol and tobacco. Even so, the insidiousness of cocaine's appeal was amply illustrated by study findings: Despite that overall growing intolerance, the number of people using the drug once a week has skyrocketed, increasing by a third to 862,000.

According to the study, cocaine is a favorite drug of Americans, ranking second only to marijuana. Some 21 million people have tried it at least once. That does not bode well for the country's attempt to lower its use among more serious cocaine fans. Indeed, it would seem to indicate that the next survey will show cocaine even more entrenched in American society.

All these findings suggest that America's drug problem may be a paradoxical one in which the nation - for now, at least - seems to be winning the war while it's losing a major battle within that war.